My Muse

My muse is a lot like Crazy Harry from the Muppet Show right now. (I look like him right about now too, but that's a post for a different day.) If you don't remember who Crazy Harry was, here's a quick clip.



My muse wants me to run around in different stories and randomly destroy everything. I have been adding an expanded middle to Shifting Her World, and reading a book on plot at the same time. I've learned just enough to doubt everything I planned to write. The same deal for Brass in Pocket. I'm ready to throw everything out the window and just do some research into how to write because apparently I don't know how to do it. Here I was, just blithely writing away, ignorantly blissful and then BAM! I go and read something on the topic of writing, and it's brought home again that I know nothing.

Now, I'm the first to tell you that I know very little about writing. I am a hunch playing, gut following, write by the seat of my pants, slap it down and see if it works, kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out, run it up the flagpole and see who salutes, kinda gal. I don't really believe that anything I write will ever get published, but I keep plugging away.

Well, this brought me to a grinding halt. I've been having a difficult time disciplining myself to sit and work recently as it is. I need a task master standing over me with a whip. (If there are any volunteers for the job, please leave your name, contact info, qualifications, and a picture of you in a strappy, revealing leather outfit.) A person left an email on our writer's loop that she's been feeling similarly, and my gut reaction was that she needed a cheerleader. Someone to read her work and blow sunshine up her skirt, and then I realized, no, that's what you secretly want. And then I got my wish!

PRISCILLA!!! My very good friend from California (what she refers to as the cereal state - where all the fruits, flakes and nuts live) called and did just that. She is awesome! She reads all my stuff and asks for more. She left me a message, saying she reread the prologue and chapter one of Shifting Her World and couldn't wait to read the rest of it. (I sent her the first six completed chapters.) She'd read the original, short version and enjoyed it. Now I'm resending it with the revisions and new middle parts as I finish. She's just what I needed today. Hopefully I'll be able to start riding the wave of her enthusiasm. She's my one and only fan right now, and I'm so grateful for her! She's helping to reinvent my muse from Crazy Harry to something more manageable.

And I'm ready to pay the favor forward. So, if you want some positive feedback right now, send me something and bend over. I'll blow so much sunshine up your skirt it'll erupt out of your ears!